Steam-reheater.



No. 784,873. PATENTED MAR. 7, 1905.

H; A. ALLEN.

STEAM REHEATER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 17. 1904.

Patented March '7, 1905.

HENRY A. ALLEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

STEAM-REHEATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 784,373, dated March 7, 1905.

Application filed May 17, 1904. Serial No. 208,335.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY A. ALLEN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steam-Reheaters for Compound Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the construction of the receiver for the steam in a compound-engine system (including in the term compound any multiple of the expansion) wherein the exhaust-steam of a preceding cylinder is heated to enhance its working efliciency.

The primary object of my improvement is to avoid in the receiver loss from the steam used for reheating of its heat by expending it in evaporating the moisture contained in the exhaust-steam which enters the receiver,

thus to eliminate as far as possible what is commonly known as reevaporation. ThisI accomplish by separatingin the receiver moisture from the exhaust-steam preparatory to reheating the latter.

My further objects are to shield the reheatingeoil in the receiver from impingement against it of the exhaust-steam entering the receiver, thus to prevent wear upon and other injury to the coil from such impingement; to increase the heating capacity of the receiver by prolonging therein the time of maintaining the exhaust-steam under subjection to the heat of the coil and by coursing through it the steam to beheated in the direction counter to that in which the heating steam courses through the coil, and to enable the superheated steam to be withdrawn from the receiver at the part therein where it is hottest.

The accompanying drawing shows my improved reheater by a view in vertical sectional elevation between the high-pressure and lowpressure cylinders of acompound engine, both represented diagrammatically.

A denotes the high-pressure cylinder, B the low-pressure cylinder, and C my improved reheater. The reheater comprises as its essential features a casinga, containing a steamcoil 7) or other suitable form of steam-conduit, communicating at its inlet end through a pipe 1.: witha steam-boiler, not shown,) with a pipe (1, leading from its discharge end. The pipe (Z may lead to a trap or drain or back to the boiler or to any auxiliary engine, and the casing a should be equipped with a safetyvalve 6, of any suitable construction, and may be provided with a receptacle f for the condensation discharging through a valved pipe f to a trap or drain (not shown) and shown I to be provided with a water-gage f".

The cylinder A exhausts into the receiver through a pipe g, leading downward in the casing nearly to its base, where it is preferably of the bellmouth shape represented, and below which may be provided, though not necessarily, a steam-separator It, represented of conical shape with a trough 2' about its lower edge discharging through a drain-pipe Z: into the receptacle f. The low-pressure cylinder B communicates with the receiver through a pipe Z, leading upward within the casing nearly to its upper end, where it is preferably of the bell-mouth shape represented. The pipes g and 6 thus preferably extend within the coil 5, and they are shown to carry bafiie-plates m, provided at intervals throughout the easing, though the battle-plates may be otherwise supported. \Vhile the pipes j and I are continued as such within the casing a, they may be provided therein in other form.

Steam exhausting from the cylinder A enters the reheater by way of the pipe g, which conducts it to the bottom of the latter, thus without impingement against the coil, with the advantage of saving the latter from the wearing effect of such impingement, and in passing out of the lower end of the pipe the moisture carried by the steam drops from it and falls upon the separator, whence it runs into the trough vi and through the pipe 7t into the receptaelef. The steam thus practically freed from moisture rises within the casing, being retarded in its progress by the battleplates and distributed throughout the coil into intimate contact with its surface, whereby when the steam attains the upper end of the casing it is highly heated, having in itscondition of entering the casing encountered the least hot lower section of the coil and advanced along the latter, as the heat therein increases on the counter-current principle. Thus the heating efficiency of the coil is not dissipated by revaporizing the moisture carried in the exhaust-steam to be reheated, with the result of materially increasing the efficieney of the reheater. The reheated steam is taken by the pipe 6 to the cylinder B from the part of the receiver wherein it is the hottest, whereby none of its efiticiency is lost.

Where the steam expansion is utilized more than once, a reheater C is intended to be provided for each additional cylinder, to be interposed between it and the one preceding it.

The several objects hereinbet'ore stated are effectively accomplished by my improved construction of reheater. These objects are not, however, all necessarily interdependent, so that I do not limit my invention to the combinations of parts whereby all of said objects are accomplished; nor is it my intention to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as they may be variously modified by those skilled in the art without departure from my invention.

hat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

' 1. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-conduit, a pipe conducting exhaust-steam from a cylinder into the lower part of the casing, means for separating from said steam moisture carried by it, preparatory to subjecting the steam, for reheating it, to contact with said conduit, and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

2. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-coil, a pipe for conducting exhaust-steam from a cylinder, said pipe discharging downward in the easing into the lower part thereof, a steam-separator in the casing at the discharge end of said pipe, and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

3. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-coil, a pipe for conducting exhaust-steam from a cylinder, said pipe discharging downward in the easing into the lower part thereof, a steam-separator in the casing at the discharge end of said pipe, a condensation receptacle communicating with said separator and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

4. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing, a pipe conducting exhaust-steam from a cylinder into the lower part of the casing, a steam-conduit in the casing out of the path of the discharge of steam from said pipe, means for separating from said steam moisture carried by it, preparatory to subjecting the steam, for reheating it, to contact with said conduit, and' a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

5. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-coil having at one end a pipe connection for a steam-boiler, a pipe for conducting exhaust-steam from a cylinder, said pipe leading through the coil downward in the casing and discharging into the lower part thereof, whereby the exhaust-steam is admitted into the casing without impinging against the coil and rises in the casingcounter to the course of steam through the coil, and moisture carried by the exhaust-steam discharging from said pipe separates from said steam preparatory to subjecting it to reheating, and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

6. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-conduit, a pipe conducting eXhaust-steam from the cylinder into the lower part of the casing, means for separating from said steam moisture carried by it, preparatory to subjecting the steam, for reheating it, to contact with said conduit, baffle-plates in the path of the steam rising in the casing, and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the casing, substantially as described.

7. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-conduit, a pipe conducting eXhaust-steam from a cylinder into the lower part of the casing, means for separating from said steam moisture carried by it,

preparatory to subjecting the steam, for reheating it, to contact with said conduit, and a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading from the upper part of the casing where the steam therein is hottest, substantially as described.

8. In a steam-reheater, the combination of a casing containing a steam-coil, a pipe for conducting eXhaust-steam from a cylinder, said pipe leading downward into the lower part of the casing, a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading out of the casing from its upper end through the coil, and baflie-plates in the path of the steam rising in the casing, the whole being constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described.

9. A steam-reheater comprising, in combi nation, a valved casing containing a steam-coil communicating at its upper end with the steam-supp] y, a pipe for conducting exhauststeam from a cylinder, said pipe leading through the coil downward in the casing and discharging into the lower part thereof, a steam-separator in the casing at the discharge end of said pipe and provided with a dischargepipe, a discharge-pipe for the reheated steam leading out of the casing from its upper end through the coil, and bafiie-plates in the path of the steam rising in the casing, the whole being constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described.

HENRY A. ALLEN.

In presence of- WALTER N. IVINBERG, L. HuIsLAR. 

